…Utterly straightforward, Chesler admits that she often “chose men who were incapable of making a commitment.” Falling in love with an Afghanistan Muslim, Chesler married him and was subsequently held captive for five months in 1961 in Kabul. It was here that she witnessed “gender apartheid, polygamy, women in burqas who were forced to sit in the back of the bus, arranged first cousin marriages, child brides and honor killings.” This experience crystallized “how things were for women” especially non-Western, tribal women – a “contempt that few Americans are willing to comprehend.” READ MORE